Spinning machines, including ring rails and annular balloon limiters



956 w. w. LEUTERT SPINNING MACHINES, INCLUDING RING RAILS AND ANNULAR BALLOON LIMITERS Flled June 29, 1955 United States Patent SPINNING MACHINES, INCLUDING RING RAILS AND ANNULAR BALLOON LIMITERS Walter W. Leutert, Geneva, Switzerland, assignor to Brematex, Tangier, a society of Tangier Application June 29, 1955, Serial No. 518,905

Claims priority, application Luxembourg July 5, 1954 4 Claims. (Cl. 57-106) The present invention relates to spinning machines including a ring rail and an annular balloon limiter, the term spinning machine applying to all textile machines including a plurality of spindles serving to the formation of cops, whether these machines serve to spinning proper or to perform any operation of the same kind, for instance twisting. The present invention is more especially but not exclusively concerned with machines of this kind where the spindles are driven directly, for instance by means of worms and worm wheels.

The word balloon is used in the art to designate the surface of revolution, substantially coaxial with every spindle, described by the yarn (either arriving to or leaving the cop, according to the type of machine that is being considered) rotating about the spindle and to which the centrifugal force gives a curvilinear shape, with its concavity toward the spindle axis.

It is known, in machines of this kind, to limit the diameter of the balloons formed around the respective spindles by means of annular elements (hereinafter called balloon limiters) each coaxial with the corresponding spindle and having an inner diameter smaller than the diameter the balloon would have at the same level if it were free to develop, this inner diameter of each balloon limiter being of course greater than the maximum diameter of the cop to be obtained.

The object of the present invention is to provide a spinning machine of this kind which is better adapted to meet the requirements of practice than those existing at the present time and in particular such that the presence of annular balloon limiters does not interfere with the removal of the cops.

In the spinning machines with which the present invention is concerned, the ring rail is arranged to have, beyond the end of its normal movement parallel to the axis of the spindle, a supplementary movement called underwinding stroke, for the formation on the base of the cop, of a plurality of supplementary turns of yarn which are to be partly unwound when the cop is removed from the spindle. The invention consists essentially in having every spindle surrounded by a balloon limiter carried by the ring rail through a retractable support such that the balloon limiter, normally held at a distance from the ring rail during the normal movement thereof, is retracted to a position very close to said ring rail, so as to clear the space surrounding the cop, in response to the production of said supplementary underwinding stroke of the ring rail so as to perform this retraction of the balloon limiter during said underwinding stroke.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawing, given merely by way of example and in which:

Fig. l is an end view of a spinning machine provided with a ring rail and a balloon limiter and made according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the parts in different relative positions.

The spinning machine partly shown on the drawing includes two rows of spindles 1 disposed in staggered relationship and driven by a shaft located between these two rows of spindles, this shaft being for instance provided with a plurality of worms which drive worm wheels carried by spindles 1.

The spinning machine further includes a ring rail 2 operated in conventional fashion so that it can have, beyond the end of its normal winding stroke, that is to say in the example shown, beyond its lowest normal position as shown by Fig. 1, an underwinding stroke which brings the ring rail into a lower position as shown by Fig. 2.

Around each of the spindles 1, there is provided an annular balloon limiter 3 consisting for instance of a metal wire ring.

The presence of such balloon limiters 3 in their normal working position may interfere with an easy removal of the finished cops from the spindles. As a matter of fact, the cops may rub against these limiters 3 and the layers of yarn formed on the surface of said cops are then disturbed.

In order to avoid this drawback, according to the present invention, the spinning machine is arranged as follows:

The balloon limiters 3 are carried by ring rail 2 through a deformable supporting system which permits of shifting said limiters from their normal working position as shown by Fig. 1 to a lower position shown by Fig. 2, where the space around the cops is wholly cleared.

Furthermore, said deformable supporting system is subjected to the action of control means operative in response to the production of the underwinding stroke of ring rail 2 so as to shift the balloon limiters 3 from their normal position to the position of Fig. 2 when said stroke takes place.

Said deformable supporting system and said control means must be arranged in such manner that the downward displacement of limiters 3 is multiplied with respelct to the downward underwinding stroke of the ring rai 2.

This is necessary because the balloon limiters 3 normally occupy a position the distance H of which from the ring rail 2 is much greater than the length or amplitude of the underwinding stroke L of the ring rail. For instance, the height H may have for practical purposes a value of mm., whereas the underwinding stroke is only 10 mm. long.

Advantageously, as shown by the drawing, balloon limiters 3 are carried by a cross member 4 connected with the ring rail 2 through a pantograph or lazy-tongs device hinged at the upper end to cross member 4 (as shown at a) and at the lower end to supports 6 on ring rail 2 (axis b).

Guiding means are provided to prevent the lazy-tongs device 5 from folding down during the normal stroke of the ring rail 2 and during the beginning of its under winding stroke L. Such means may be constituted as follows: In order to prevent folding down of the lazy tongs device during the normal stroke of the ring rail, vertical plates carried by the frame of the machine and having vertical edges 7, cooperate with the articulations of the arms of the lazy-tongs device. In order to prevent folding down of the lazy-tongs device at the beginning of the underwinding stroke of the ring rail, two cams 8, rigid with the frame of the machine, are provided with vertical edges 8a which cooperate, when necessary, with pins 9 provided for this purpose on the two lower arms of the lazy-tongs device 5.

The lower edges of cams 8 are given a concave shape as shown at 8b so as to permit a full folding down of the lazy-tongs device 5 when, during the end of the underwinding stroke of the ring rail, pins 9 escape from the vertical edges 8a of cams 8 and engage on said under edges 8b under the action of the weight of the moving pieces (position shown on Fig. 2).

Preferably, the vertical edges 7 extend downwardly to form curved edges which serve to guide the lazytongs device during its folding.

With such an arrangement, the movement of balloon limiters 3 is multiplied with respect to that of the ring rail 2 during the underwinding stroke thereof. Inversely, when the ring rail passes from its lowest position at the end of its underwinding stroke to its normal lower position, the inclined edges 8b first retain pins 9 which causes the lazy-tongs device to be extended, then said pins 9 slide along the vertical edges 8a of cams 8, after which the vertical edges 7 come into play to keep the lazytongs device in fully extended position during the normal displacements of ring rail 2.

As shown by Fig. 2, when the balloon limiter 3 is retracted into close vicinity to ring rail 2, said balloon limiters fully clear the space around the spindles so that the cops can be removed from said spindles without any risk of interference as it exists in the machines made at the present time, although the spindles may be located as close as possible to each other.

The downward movement of the annular balloon limiters might be accelerated by a resilient system.

In a general manner, while I have, in the above description, disclosed what I deem to be practical and efficient embodiments of my invention, it should be well understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto as there might be changes made in the arrangement, disposition and form of the parts without departing from the principle of the present invention as comprehended within the scope of the accompanying claims.

What I claim is:

1. A spinning machine which comprises, in combination, a fixed frame, a plurality of spindles rotatable in said frame, a ring rail, said ring rail and the Whole of said spindles being movable with respect to each other in a direction parallel to the axes of said spindles, said ring rail having with respect to said spindles a normal winding movement and a supplementary underwinding movement beyond the end of said normal winding movement, an annular balloon limiter coaxial with each of said spindles, a retractable support for said balloon limiter carried by said ring rail for normally holding said balloon limiter at a substantial distance from said ring rail during the normal winding movement thereof, and cooperating means carried by said frame and said support for retracting said support toward said ring rail in response to said ring rail having said supplementary underwinding displacement.

2. A spinning machine according to claim 1 in which the means for retracting the balloon limiter are arranged to give the retraction stroke an amplitude which is a multiple of the amplitude of the underwinding stroke of the ring rail.

3. A spinning machine which comprises, in combination, a fixed frame, a plurality of spindles rotatable in said frame, a ring rail, said ring rail and the whole of said spindles being movable with respect to each other in a direction parallel to the axes of said spindles, said ring rail having with respect to said spindles a normal winding movement and a supplementary underwinding movement beyond the end of said normal winding movement, an annular balloon limiter coaxial with each of said spindles, a lazy-tongs device interposed between said ring rail and said balloon limiter for normally holding said balloon limiter at a substantial distance from said ring rail during the normal winding movement there of, and abutment means carried by said frame and said lazy-tongs device for folding said lazy-tongs device toward said ring rail in response to said ring rail having a supplementary underwinding displacement.

4. A spinning machine according to claim 3 in which said abutment means comprises a cam having vertical edges and horizontal under edges with recesses therein, the lower ends of said lazy-tongs devices including projections adapted to cooperate with said cam edges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,473,520 Gwaltney June 21, 1949 2,660,856 Kingsbury Dec. 1, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,091,728 France Nov. 3, 1954 

